Nathan Bauman first found love, then he found his work passion.
And finally he helped his student transportation department recover roughly $500,000 in funds associated with field trips funded by various departments.
His journey began in 2009, when he was a bus driver at Aldine Independent School District in Texas and his then-girlfriend’s mother was running the field trip department.
She was struggling to integrate a new digital system the district had invested in to streamline the request-and-approval process for field trips. The new system was designed to replace the inefficient process of back-and-forth emailing that required a month’s notice for a typical field trip.
He volunteered to troubleshoot the issue, resolved it with the vendor and was promptly asked to take on more technical tasks as challenges arose across the student transportation department.
“I was naturally strong at solving these problems and was able to help the district a lot more in a technical role that served the entire department than simply as a driver,” he explained. “It’s rewarding to be able to troubleshoot issues that I know help the drivers and the staff run smarter.”
A year later he was promoted into a technical assistant role and he’s been helping the transportation department leverage busHive, the field trip software, ever since.
His work culminated in the efficient recouping of approximately $500,00 every school year from different district departments which rely on the transportation department to shuttle students to and from a diverse set of activities and programs.
“The process to recoup these funds would take an incredible amount of time, energy and focus to complete if it were not for busHive,” Bauman said.
“The fact that it automates so many of the calculations involved in so many different types of unique trips makes it easy for me to work across the district to recoup a significant amount to our department.”
A Texas-Sized Challenge: Capturing Trip Data from Various Funding Sources
Not every field trip is created equal, especially as it relates to funding.
Burnham said about 65 percent of the field trips are normal activities that are already part of the funding schedule for the transportation department, including athletics and inter-district activities.
The remaining 35 percent of the non-fixed route trips are associated with a third-party funding source, often federal or some other academic funding.
These trips carry a significant cost, averaging about $300 – $500 per run.
“There is so much variability and diversity among these trips so it’s not something we can easily crank out in a spreadsheet,” he said. “It takes a lot of focus and expertise to capture all the unique data in a way that makes it easy for us and simple for the other departments.”
In a district with 56,000 students and a transportation department that maintains 474 buses that traveled nearly five million miles last academic year, the costs of these trips add up to significant sums.
Barnham estimates these special field and activity trips total approximately 2,500 per year.
That’s where the district’s investment in the busHive software application pays dividends.
Its ability to automate the request-to-approval-to-driver assignment process without a flurry of back-and-forth emails has silenced the chaotic noise long associated with this process.
The 30-day request is still department policy, but the busHive software allows Barnham and his team to respond rapidly when a one-off last-minute request knocks at their door.
“Most of the district staff are very good about putting their requests in well in advance and it helps us manage and plan, but we’re also able to respond nearly immediately when someone forgets or a true last-minute opportunity presents itself,” he explained.
“We can get a request today and be ready to dispatch a bus tomorrow and not have it disrupt us. busHive makes it easy to route it across all the approvals and get the driver assigned in no time.”
Automating Complex Reimbursements: A Texas-Sized Challenge
But the financial side of the equation is where the busHive investment shifts from efficiency accelerator to financial differentiator.
Prior to busHive, the district had to manually calculate the value of each of those 2,500 unique trips and then engage in email requests for reimbursements. The process was slow, tedious and rife with opportunities for clerical or accounting errors to disrupt prompt payments.
“There is so much variability and diversity among these trips so it’s not something we can easily crank out in a spreadsheet,” he said. “It takes a lot of focus and expertise to capture all the unique data in a way that makes it easy for us and simple for the other department.”
Today, busHive automates the calculations, creates an invoice, integrates with a third-party financial management software to make the request and receives the reimbursement.
From request to receipt, the money is often received in about three days.
“Without busHive, this could take weeks of back and forth,” he said. “The calculations alone would be an enormous burden nevermind the reconciliation of the receipts. busHive automates so much of the heavy lifting and creates a smooth system for every person in the process.”
Bauman calculates the funds recouped equate to about $500,000 per school year. Without busHive, it would be nearly impossible to process all the requests required to achieve that recouping.
“Not everyone appreciates so many of the intricacies of special trips and how we pay for them and how the transportation department serves the district,” he said.
“It has made a world of difference to our department and our accounting to have a system that automates nearly every part of the process.”
Our School Bus Operating platform arms your team with the information they need to improve decision making around safety, reducing costs, and being more efficient each day.
Trusted by dozens of public and private student transportation fleets to improve how they do business.
Learn More and Book a Demo.
